Correct Recall Research Articles

False recall with the drmrs ("drummers") procedure: a quantitative summary and review.

In the Deese-Roediger-McDermott-Read-Solso (DRMRS) procedure, which has recently enjoyed widespread use, participants try to remember lists of items constructed around critical themes that are not presented. The purpose of this quantitative review was to estimate the extent to which these themes are falsely recalled (Critical Intrusions) and to compare this error rate with Correct Recall and with false recall of other words that were not presented (Noncritical Intrusions). Based on 111 estimates, the mean rate of Critical Intrusions was .374 (95% confidence interval of .344 to .403), which was a very large effect (d=2.40). Critical Intrusions were less frequent than Correct Recall (.572) but more frequent than Noncritical Intrusions (.078). Critical Intrusions were lower (.318) for people told to be confident (not to guess) than for people not so cautioned (.428), a medium to large effect size (d=0.69). Effects of other variables are summarized, and the theoretical and applied implications of these results are discussed.

Addendum to P. L. Baldi (1998).

The aim of this follow-up study was to evaluate the persistence of the memorization strategies of 65 mentally retarded adolescents (M IQ of 53). Mean correct recall was best for drawings for which semantic elaboration was suitable for both immediate and 1-hr. recall.

Possible explanations for children's literal interpretations of homonyms.

This study was designed to examine factors associated with literal interpretations of homonyms. Participants were 212 second graders, ages 7;0-8;11, who listened to a story containing 16 key words. The key words were homonymous words ('pseudo-homonyms'), nonsense words, or familiar words used accurately. While listening to the story, children selected an illustration of each key word. Later, they were asked to recall the key words and to justify their picture selections. There was no association between interpretation and recall accuracy for nonsense words or familiar words used accurately; however, children who accurately recalled a homonymous key word were more likely to interpret the homonym 'literally,' relative to children who failed to recall the key word. Yet most of the children who correctly interpreted the pseudohomonyms also correctly interpreted these key words. Most children correctly recalled the story context regardless of key word type, but whereas correct recall of context predicted accurate interpretation of nonsense words and familiar words used accurately, it did not do so for homonyms. Children made equivalent numbers of literal and accurate interpretations of homonyms, even when correctly recalling context. Children's justifications for their word interpretations implicated the role of metacognitive skills, particularly in terms of selective attention, as a factor influencing homonym interpretation.

Genuine memory bias versus response bias in anxiety

Low and high trait anxiety undergraduates were presented with physical‐threat, ego‐threat, positive, and neutral words. Following an orienting task promoting lexical—but not semantic—processing, unexpected free recall or recognition tests were presented. High anxiety participants showed increased correct recall of both types of threat‐related words, but also increased incorrect recall (intrusions) and incorrect recognition (false alarms) of these words. Furthermore, participants high in anxiety had reduced sensitivity (d′) for ego‐threat words, and reduced cautiousness (β) for physical‐threat words. This tendency to report threat‐related information regardless of prior presentation suggests that there is a response bias rather than a memory bias in anxiety. In addition, this bias is likely to be mediated by depression insofar as physical‐threat information is concerned, although the bias can be attributed to trait anxiety insofar as ego‐threat information is concerned.

Naleway et al. Eczematous skin disease and recall of past diagnoses: implications for smallpox vaccination. Ann Intern Med 2003;139:1-7

A telephone survey was conducted in a group of Wisconsin patients previously diagnosed with atopic dermatitis/eczema in themselves or in household family members since 1979. In 30% to 40% of such respondents, the individuals could not recall such a skin problem; there was actually a somewhat lower frequency of correct recall (59%) for atopic dermatitis/eczema in the respondent himself or herself. These findings have important implications for the screening of those who might be vaccinated against smallpox if there were a threat of smallpox infection.

Genuine memory bias versus response bias in anxiety

Low and high trait anxiety undergraduates were presented with physical‐threat, ego‐threat, positive, and neutral words. Following an orienting task promoting lexical—but not semantic—processing, unexpected free recall or recognition tests were presented. High anxiety participants showed increased correct recall of both types of threat‐related words, but also increased incorrect recall (intrusions) and incorrect recognition (false alarms) of these words. Furthermore, participants high in anxiety had reduced sensitivity (d′) for ego‐threat words, and reduced cautiousness (β) for physical‐threat words. This tendency to report threat‐related information regardless of prior presentation suggests that there is a response bias rather than a memory bias in anxiety. In addition, this bias is likely to be mediated by depression insofar as physical‐threat information is concerned, although the bias can be attributed to trait anxiety insofar as ego‐threat information is concerned.

Reducing misinformation effects in children with cognitive interviews: dissociating recollection and familiarity.

Two experiments examined the effect of a cognitive interview on 4- and 8-year-old children's correct recall and subsequent reporting of misinformation. Children viewed an event followed by misinformation that was read or self-generated either before or after a cognitive interview. Children were then given a recognition test under inclusion and exclusion instructions. A cognitive interview elicited more correct details than a control interview. Age-related changes were found such that the 8-year-old children's reports were more complete and they recalled more correct person, action, object, and location details than the 4-year-old children. A cognitive interview given after postevent misinformation reduced children's reporting of misinformation at interview and reduced reporting of self-generated misinformation at test. Process dissociation analyses revealed that recollection increased but familiarity decreased with age.

Two contributions of distinctive processing to accurate memory

Accurate memory requires both acceptance of correct items and rejection of incorrect items. The concept of distinctive processing has been used to explain both of these contributions to accurate memory, but in previous research the definitions of distinctive processing that services correct acceptance and correct rejection have been quite different. In this paper distinctive processing is defined as the processing of difference within the context of similarity, but a distinction is drawn between item-based distinctive processing and event-based distinctive processing. Two experiments are presented that require participants to perform orienting tasks on a preliminary list of words followed by a list targeted for memory. Either the same or different tasks are performed on the two lists. Furthermore, the tasks are selected such that they either draw attention to similarities or to differences within the lists. The results show that performing different tasks on the two lists facilitates rejection of distracters from the preliminary list in both recognition and recall. Correct recognition and recall of target items was unaffected by the task on the preliminary list but was facilitated by the task that draws attention to differences among items within the target lists. The outcome indicates different effects of item-based and event-based distinctive processing on memory accuracy.

The effect of a prior cognitive interview on children's acceptance of misinformation

AbstractThis research examined whether a Cognitive interview facilitates correct recall in children aged 4 to 5 and 9 to 10 years, and whether a Cognitive interview given before post‐event misinformation reduces children's reporting of suggestions on subsequent memory tests. Children were presented with an event followed the next day by a Cognitive or a Memorandum interview. Children were then read a post‐event summary containing misleading suggestions. The next day all children were given both standard test and modified forced‐choice cued‐recall tests. The free recall phase of the Cognitive interview elicited the greatest number of correct details. Age differences were found such that 9‐ to 10‐year‐old children's reports were more accurate and more complete than those of the 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds. More correct person, action and object details were reported in a Cognitive interview. Misinformation effects were found in both age groups on the standard test whereas on the modified test such an effect was only found in the 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds. Children's reporting of suggestions was unaffected by prior interview. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Word-length effect in verbal short-term memory in individuals with Down's syndrome.

Many studies have indicated that individuals with Down's syndrome (DS) show a specific deficit in short-term memory for verbal information. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of the length of words on verbal short-term memory in individuals with DS. Twenty-eight children with DS and 10 control participants matched for memory span were tested on verbal serial recall and speech rate, which are thought to involve rehearsal and output speed. Although a significant word-length effect was observed in both groups for the recall of a larger number of items with a shorter spoken duration than for those with a longer spoken duration, the number of correct recalls in the group with DS was reduced compared to the control subjects. The results demonstrating poor short-term memory in children with DS were irrelevant to speech rate. In addition, the proportion of repetition-gained errors in serial recall was higher in children with DS than in control subjects. The present findings suggest that poor access to long-term lexical knowledge, rather than overt articulation speed, constrains verbal short-term memory functions in individuals with DS.

Back to basics: a componential analysis of the original cognitive interview mnemonics with three age groups

AbstractA large body of research now exists which demonstrates that the cognitive interview (CI) increases the reporting of correct recall from various population groups. It is now necessary to determine from both a theoretical and an applied perspective which of the CI techniques, or combination of techniques are largely responsible for this CI superiority effect. The two aims of this study were (1) to examine the relative effectiveness of each of the four original CI mnemonics and (2) to assess their efficacy as a function of age. A total of 125 participants; 34 first‐year undergraduate students, 44 children aged 8–9 years and 47 children aged 5–6 years viewed a video‐recording of an accident. Forty‐eight hours later each participant was individually interviewed and randomly assigned to one of six instruction groups; (1) context reinstatement, (2) change perspective, (3) change order, (4) report everything, (5) report everything + context reinstatement combination (RE + CR), or (6) a control instruction to ‘try again’. Each of the individual CI mnemonics were found to be of equal benefit and to occasion no more recall than the ‘try again’ control. However, the RE + CR combination resulted in significantly more correct recall compared to the individual mnemonics. There was no effect of age group on the efficacy of the various instructions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sex Differences in Memory Estimates, Revisited

207 undergraduate students (95 men and 112 women) representing all four years in college provided estimates of memory performance before and after a recall task involving 80 stimuli (41) pictures and 40 words). The study was intended as a replication of the work of Ionescu in 2000 wherein men underestimated their performance on the picture items and women underestimated their performance on the words. No sex differences were found for correct recall totals, recall for pictures, recall for words, and total prerecall performance estimates. Although both men and women underestimated their pre- and postrecall performance, women underestimated their postrecall performance more than men. More importantly, men underestimated their performance on recall of pictures, whereas women underestimated their performance on the word items, thereby validating prior results with a larger sample. The possible bases for this phenomenon are still not clear.

Effects of divided attention and word concreteness on correct recall and false memory reports

Lists of thematically related words were presented to participants with or without a concurrent task. In Experiments 1 and 2, respectively, English or Spanish word lists were either low or high in concreteness (concrete vs abstract words) and were presented, respectively, auditorily or visually for study. The addition of a concurrent visual or auditory task, respectively, substantially reduced correct recall and doubled the frequency of false memory reports (nonstudied critical or theme words). Divided attention was interpreted as having reduced the opportunity for participants to monitor successfully their elicitations of critical associates. Comparisons of concrete and abstract lists revealed significantly more recalls of false memories for abstract than concrete word lists. Comparisons between two levels of attention, two levels of word concreteness, and two presentation modalities failed to support the "more is less" effect by which enhanced correct recall is accompanied by increased frequencies of false memories.

Demonstrating the Effects of Presentation Rate on Aging Memory Using the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT)

Previous research has repeatedly found that the elderly demonstrate significant declines in direct measures of memory. This study examined verbal learning and memory in the young and old participants using the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). We hypothesized that slowing down the presentation rate of a list of words, therefore giving the participants more time to rehearse while learning new information, would decrease the normal differences found between the young and old adults on memory recall. However, at a faster presentation rate, the usual differences would be found. Participants took the CVLT, and correct recall responses were measured as a function of age and presentation rate. It was found, as expected, that at the faster presentation rate, the young did significantly better than the old on recall, but at the slower presentation rate, the differences between age groups diminished. It was concluded that by giving the elderly more time to rehearse information, age-related differences in memory recall could be greatly diminished.

One day, as I was lying in the scanner…

We all tell little white lies, but have you ever thought about what is really involved in lying? At the very least, you need to maintain a representation of the truth, while you consciously generate the lie. For longer-term Machiavellian plots, the lie might also need to be maintained, updated and cultivated, certainly requiring large amounts of cognitive effort. Lee and colleagues were interested in finding out the neural correlates of lying and devised two fMRI studies to probe brain activity related to intentionally falsifying a response [1xLie detection by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Lee, T. et al. Hum. Brain Mapp. 2002; 15: 157–164Crossref | PubMed | Scopus (166)See all References[1]. The first made use of a digit memory task in which subjects had to respond by pressing a button if a 3-digit number presented on the screen had been seen in the previous trial. The second study asked an autobiographical question (for example ‘Where were you born?’) followed by a location (e.g. London). In both studies subjects pressed a button for a ‘Yes’ response. Four conditions were used: correct recall, incorrect recall (getting them all wrong deliberately), random recall and feigned memory impairment (i.e. lying). During the lying condition, subjects were instructed to ‘fake skilfully’, with the incentive that a lot of errors without detection (successful lies) would lead to monetary reward. A behavioural study prior to scanning showed that most subjects (about 80%) could manipulate the proportion of correct and incorrect answers in order to fake skilfully. Using this information, activation was predicted in prefrontal regions, responsible for the on-line manipulation of information, and fronto-parietal cortex, responsible for the mental arithmetic required to calculate the proportion of correct versus incorrect responses.Activation from the correct-recall condition was subtracted from that observed during lying, in order to determine the neuroanatomical correlates of deception. Areas of activation common to the digit and autobiographical studies after this subtraction included bilateral prefrontal cortex, frontal, parietal, temporal and subcortical (caudate) regions. Left posterior cingulate activity was also observed. The largest areas of activation were in the lateral regions of the right frontal cortex, areas responsible for processing secondary goals while holding primary goals on-line, and the selection of retrieval strategies. (When lying, it is important to remember the truth in order to be successful in the lie!) Parietal activation represented the calculation of the proportion of ‘lies’ that had been told. The caudate and posterior cingulate activation was attributed to the inhibition of learned rules, in this case, the inhibition of the usual (correct) response, and the monitoring of error performance while lying. Although this study represents an initial attempt to describe the neural activity involved in lying, the lack of specificity of the ‘lying circuitry’ suggests that it will be some time before we hear ‘Are you willing to have an fMRI scan?'in court!

Stability and consistency of children’s event recall

The purpose of the study was to investigate consistency of recall across different tasks of event recall (similar to eyewitness tasks) and stability of performance across two different events. Additionally, developmental differences in consistency and stability were explored. 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children were subsequently shown two different events (videos) and were questioned about each event in two separate interviews. For both videos, performance levels in free recall, unbiased cued recall, and suggestibility were at similar levels, with older children generally outperforming younger children. As to intertask consistency of recall, there were significant correlations between correct free recall and correct unbiased cued recall but not between correct free recall and yielding to suggestive questions. All three measures of eyewitness performance showed significant group stability (test-retest correlations) across the two interviews, regardless of age. However, individual stability (lability) was lower, which points to moderate individual differences in stability across the two interviews. The findings are discussed in terms of underlying cognitive skills and the problem of predicting a single child’s memory performance in real cases of eyewitness testimony.

Memory distortion in people reporting abduction by aliens.

False memory creation was examined in people who reported having recovered memories of traumatic events that are unlikely to have occurred: abduction by space aliens. A variant of the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm (J. Deese. 1959; H. L. Roediger III & K. B. McDermott, 1995) was used to examine false recall and false recognition in 3 groups: people reporting recovered memories of alien abduction. people who believe they were abducted by aliens but have no memories, and people who deny having been abducted by aliens. Those reporting recovered and repressed memories of alien abduction were more prone than control participants to exhibit false recall and recognition. The groups did not differ in correct recall or recognition. Hypnotic suggestibility, depressive symptoms, and schizotypic features were significant predictors of false recall and false recognition.

Context and cue cards in young children's testimony: a comparison of brief narrative elaboration and context reinstatement.

In a comparison of interview procedures that aimed to assist retrieval strategies in children's event recall, 72 children aged 4-6 years were questioned about a witnessed event. Context reinstatement and brief narrative elaboration (an abbreviated version of K. J. Saywitz and L. Snyder's [1996] procedure) produced similar levels of correct recall, and both elicited more correct recall than did a control condition, with no increase in errors. Combining these procedures did not further improve performance. The superiority of narrative elaboration over the control group was evident in free recall and did not depend on explicit prompting with cue cards. These findings suggest that incorporating brief narrative elaboration training in investigative interviews with children may, like context reinstatement, be a valuable mnemonic aid.

Shared Information, Cognitive Load, and Group Memory

One of the key findings concerning how groups process information is the ‘common knowledge effect’—information shared by many group members plays a larger role in group process and performance than unshared information. However, in an information rich environment, assigning all information to all members may overload each member’s cognitive capabilities. Thus, the question addressed here is how to optimally assign information to group members. Following a model proposed by Zajonc and Smoke (1959), we assessed the effects of information assignment redundancy and group interaction on group memory performance. Participants in five-person groups either received a full list of consonant-verb-consonant non-word trigrams to memorize, or a partial list with each trigram distributed to two group members. Groups recalled the trigrams as either coacting or interacting groups. In terms of correct recall, coacting groups outperformed interacting groups, and partial redundancy produced better recall than total redundancy. However, intrusion errors were greatly reduced by group interaction and/or a reduction in the cognitive load on the individual group members (i.e. partial redundancy). Groups in the partial redundancy condition tended to perform near optimal levels. Implications for future research on information distribution in groups are discussed.

Effects of Free and Forced Retrieval Instructions on False Recall and Recognition

One hundred undergraduates heard 6 lists of 14 words that were each associated with 1 of 6 central concepts not on the lists (the DRMRS procedure). The participants were instructed to recall as many words as possible (free retrieval) or to fill all 14 spaces (forced retrieval) and were subsequently given a recognition test. False recall and recognition of the critical central concepts were higher with forced than with free retrieval instructions, but correct recall and recognition were not affected. Confidence was lower for false than for correct recall and recognition. Confidence was also lower with forced than with free retrieval instructions for false recall but not for false recognition. The DRMRS procedure easily elicited false memories, but confidence judgments helped more in detecting them in recall than in recognition. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.